‘The Energy is Toxic’: Rajon Rondo Benched by Carlisle

Dallas Mavericks’ head coach Rick Carlisle is not the first, nor likely the last NBA head coach to butt heads with Rajon Rondo. But this time there doesn’t seem to be any hope of reconciliation building into a mutual respect.

As reported by Yahoo! Sports, “Around Rondo, the energy is toxic” and things don’t appear to be changing anytime soon following the Game-2 loss to the Houston Rockets where we may have witnessed Rondo’s frustrations spill onto the hardwood.

“Rondo always does the work, the preparation, but everyone could see again in Game 2 that his struggles with Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle remain an immense hurdle. On the court, there were those who believed Rondo’s eight-second violation for failing to cross the midcourt line was an act of protest on the coach’s calling of plays. Rondo played 10 minutes, picking up fouls for slapping at James Harden, and finally a technical to start the third quarter for shoving Harden out of sheer frustration.”

Rightly so, this led to Carlisle banishing Rondo to the bench for the fourth quarter while playing Raymond Felton in his place.

Even if the Mavericks can bounce back and take the series from the Rockets, all signs still point to Rajon leaving during free agency to his preferred-rumored destination, the Los Angeles lakers.